I started out with a $65 bounty hunter tracker iv about 5 years ago.
I used it and a pinpointer a few times back then and found a few coins (just newer clad) and a fake gold earring. I really wanted to get into the hobby but didnt have much free time and felt stupid out there by myself and didnt have anyone to go with.

Fast forward several years and my son is now 10 and been bugging me for days for a detector.
Unfortunately I sold the tracker iv to a buddy for $20 last year so had to go buy another one for him yesterday from hobby lobby for $65 (40% off coupon)
He seen me watching aussie gold hunters and that gave him the bug to get one.
I explained to him he would not find gold and that he might have to dig 1000 trash items before finding something really nice like older 90% silver coins.

I would love to do some prospecting and would shell out the money for some nice gear but sadly live in Illinois. What surprised me was I read from several online sources that the river I live by is one of only 3 places in Illinois where gold was recorded being found (dropped glacier gold)

Now I know it sounds crazy but the river that gold has been found at - I am pretty familiar with as Ive done a bunch of canoing and fishing there and thinking about getting a machine again since I have a hunting partner now (my son)
I know it will be next to impossible to find any gold and that if found it would probably be flake sub gram stuff but the river has a really old turn of the century bottle plant off the river where ive found cool stuff before and know people used to work there in late 1800s early 1900s so might get lucky and find some 90% silver.

Long story short....
I was thinking about a tesoro compadre....solid machine,no screen to distract me and can learn to listen but dont know if it would hit small gold if It was there. Then thought about the tesoro lobo but read that the gold bug 2 might be better. Ive been doing alot of reading and listened to a 3 hour podcast today with Nathan on it from tesoro and am really leaning torwards a tesoro but open to other options.

I dont want to spend too much incase I dont stick with the hobby but would like a gold capable machine that could also do well on jewelry and coins.

Small, natural gold is always tough. It requires high dollar, high frequency equipment that won't be great for other types of hunting. A few to youtube would be the AT Gold and the Fisher Gold Bug. I've seen both hit fairly small pickers in videos and are good all around. Hopefully some members with in the field experience will chime in.

I have always used Whites and I just purchased a used M6 like new but I also have a Tesoro Compadre coming purchased like new used and shipped to my door. I have heard good things about the Tesoro line and I am itching to try it out. The Compadre gets really good reviews all over the place.

The M6 just works, and I tried a couple of the newer Whites line and was disappointed.

FYI there is gold found in nearly every state, including Iowa where I live. Not much however and there are people using sluice boxes and little dredges to get it out. Its not well known and for the reasons you might think. If a miner finds a good spot, it could take him all summer to get an Oz (or 2) of gold.

I think its the Gold prospectors of America or something like that that has more info. Read up on how and where to find river gold, and buy a pan. Who knows?

Gold nuggets, tiny shallow ones can still be found with the Compadre, I assume the Mojave too among other Tesoros, but lower end units are not exactly the right tools for serious gold hunters.
In the real world should be fine for coins, jewelry and other targets.

Good gold hunting tools can also be used for normal hunting Gold Bug, Logo, et al, but price varies from mid range on up.

A Teknetics Patriot with a sniper coil can do both pretty well, I have found the tiniest targets with my F70, and excellent at regular hunting in all kinds of sites and conditions for normal targets for $400.
Plus you have the Omega units and others that would probably work for your purposes, also.

Concentrate on tools and price points that will take care of your needs in the predominate type of sites you will be spending your time hunting and just don't expect much but still have fun in the rarer hunting areas.

FYI I took my Whites MXT Pro to Alaska thinking finding gold. Well thanks to not knowing where I could or should use in Canada, and procrastination I never used it. But I also brought along two of those Garrett panning kits or one kit and one pan... anyway we panned for gold and low and behold we got some. Maybe enough to pay for a 12 pack of drinks.... but heck you never know!

Having prospected for over 40 years on and off, I can tell you that no metal detector is going to find the kind of gold your area probably has, and that's flour gold, very tiny, tiny fine flakes. Generally speaking, to be detectable you have to be shooting for nuggets of a decent size, pickers and larger. I did a little checking and there doesn't seem to be much of gold that size ever found in Illinois.

If it's really local gold you're after, you need a pan, a sieve, and a shovel. Read up on gold panning techniques, then head out to your most likely areas and do some prospecting. Also take along a loupe so you can really see the flakes you may find... If you get anything you'll need a sniffer bottle or tweeers to get them out of the pan and a little glass vial to put them in.

If it were me, I would concentrate my energy in your area on hunting old coins and jewelry. I know of several folks in your state who do very well detecting for both. That's not to say prospecting isn't fun and worth doing, you just have to go into it understanding what gold there actually may be where you're hunting it.

Originally Posted by BBsGalView post
Having prospected for over 40 years on and off, I can tell you that no metal detector is going to find the kind of gold your area probably has, and that's flour gold, very tiny, tiny fine flakes. Generally speaking, to be detectable you have to be shooting for nuggets of a decent size, pickers and larger. I did a little checking and there doesn't seem to be much of gold that size ever found in Illinois.

If it's really local gold you're after, you need a pan, a sieve, and a shovel. Read up on gold panning techniques, then head out to your most likely areas and do some prospecting. Also take along a loupe so you can really see the flakes you may find... If you get anything you'll need a sniffer bottle or tweeers to get them out of the pan and a little glass vial to put them in.

If it were me, I would concentrate my energy in your area on hunting old coins and jewelry. I know of several folks in your state who do very well detecting for both. That's not to say prospecting isn't fun and worth doing, you just have to go into it understanding what gold there actually may be where you're hunting it.

Yea... prospecting is probably far fetched for me. I envy you guys who live out west and other gold producing places. If I lived down under i would invest some money in a 4wd and a nice PI detector and be out there whenever possible.....

Ok.....lol, back to reality.
I guess I just need to focus on a good gold jewelery machine and hit some parks,beaches,playgrounds, and fields up.

Ive read the compadre is really good with hitting small gold jewelery items but dont want to "cheap out" and always wonder if i would be hitting more targets with something like the lobo etc. I know the compadre is a solid performing machine and may just go that route.

This is probably stupid but I dont care for the sounds of the tones on some of these lower priced units. Ive watched vids on mid ranged machines where they have a much higher piched tone that to me seem like they would be easier to read. Maybe im just crazy I dont know.
My boys tracker iv has multi tone but dont really like the sounds of the tones it makes either.
What dictates the pitch and sounds of the tone? Is it just dependant on the manufacturer or is it dynamic based off the freq of the machine? This is probably the dumbest question ever I guess.... just thinking if im to learn my machine well then maybe I should pick one with a tone or tones that sound good to me and think I will eventually be able to read them better.

I know theres a slew of good digital screened machines that gives depth and target numbers and at first that really appealed to me but starting to think for myself personally that id like to keep it simple and use the sounds of the target to give me info.

I do have a pretty good sized collection of silver bullion and numismatics that I would love to add to. So would the compadre fit the bill for a gold/silver jewelery and coin machine? Or should I go with my weird preference for a higher toned more specialized mid range machine?

Some manufacturers are starting to catch on that the tones actually matter to quite a few detectorists and have started to make the tones adjustable. I recently traded for an AKA Sorex pro. Not only are the tones really nice, they're also adjustable. It has different sound schemes as well which are really pleasant. It's a high mid priced unit but very much worth the price. You can also change frequencies by changing coils. Anywhere from 1 to 25khz although the standard availabe coils come in 3, 5, 7, 12, 14 and 20khz.

I tried out the used like new, Tesoro Compadre I got today and it really needs an adjustment for Sensitivity at least on my ground here in Iowa. So they offer sort of an upgrade for it called the Silver Sabre and its been around forever and now upgraded. I know nothing about it.

But if you get a lower priced Tesoro with a water proof coil and then the Garrett waterproof pin pointer to check under water rocks and that area?

Id vote compadre with the 5.75 coil.
Great machine to dial in your technique,
And it hits wee little bits of gold jewelry.
Hard to beat in certain park situations.
It will detect coins and other items right next
to poles and fence posts. Even if you move on to
a more featured detector it will always have a use.

Just remember.....if you want to find park gold,
you are gonna have to dig an imperial ton of
foil and pulltabs. Its there it just takes patience,
persistence, and a big trash can!

Originally Posted by wmgeorgeView post
I tried out the used like new, Tesoro Compadre I got today and it really needs an adjustment for Sensitivity at least on my ground here in Iowa. So they offer sort of an upgrade for it called the Silver Sabre and its been around forever and now upgraded. I know nothing about it.

But if you get a lower priced Tesoro with a water proof coil and then the Garrett waterproof pin pointer to check under water rocks and that area?

Still doing a bunch of research and review reading but think I have it narrowed down to 3 choices.

#1. Tesoro compadre with 8" coil. Inexpensive and a decent machine for finding jewelry at parks and tot lots. Simple and was ready to pull the trigger on one but read you loose quite a bit of depth when thumbing the disc knob on targets so really I would have to set disc around iron and dig everything. The depth loss when thumbing disc issue gave rise to my second choice.....

#2 Tesoro Mojave... A mid ground between my first and third choice. Not a huge amount of info I can find on this one since its so new. Anyone know if this is running the same electronics as the compadre? If its a more powerful compadre and just as sensitive to small gold etc but without the thumbing disc depth loss issue then maybe this one will serve me well. Im in central Illinois so Im guessing the ground is decent but would have the high ground mineralization switch just incase I ever travel to areas with exposed bedrock or bad soil conditions. Just have to figure out if these extra features are worth the price difference over the compadre.

#3 Garrett AT Pro. 2x the price of the mojave and over 3x of the compadre although I know it wont find me 3x the amount of targets it appeals to me because of the multiple tones and could reference the display info to help me while im learning. Might be better suited for fields than small tot lots though so maybe I will just stick with one of the above and if I stay in the hobby can pick this up later as a second machine for deeper coins or relics in large fields with not alot of trash.

Any recommendations between the compadre and mojave?
Sorry for being so indecisive but will be ordering this upcoming fri so still have a week to narrow it down. My boy is ready to go. Got him a tracker 4 , headphones, digging knife, and a couple pro pointers ordered. Hes waiting on me now to get my machine.

After trying out my little Tesoro Compadre and learning as I go. I think the reason people find so much, its easy to use just grab and go. It does work, and since your really are not 100% sure what is there, you dig it all.

Someone once said to me, if you want to find the gold you need to dig the trash. Or dig it all.